OZ Case Study: One Dallas Neighborhood, 1,000 Units

Many OZ developers make a single bet — one deal, one census tract — and hope it works. Barrett Linburg is making a different bet — that concentrating nearly 1,000 units across dozens of deals in a single Dallas neighborhood would let his company control its own destiny and create a flywheel of investment that keeps compounding.

Barrett, co-CEO of Savoy Companies, joins the show on-site in Bishop Ridge to discuss the neighborhood concentration thesis, Savoy’s vertically integrated platform, and how stacking OZ with CRA equity and the Texas Public Facility Corporation structure transforms project returns.

Guest: Barrett Linburg

About The Opportunity Zones Podcast

Hosted by OpportunityZones.com founder Jimmy Atkinson, The Opportunity Zones Podcast features guest interviews from fund managers, advisors, policymakers, tax professionals, and other foremost experts in the Opportunity Zones industry.

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Episode Summary

Barrett Linburg is the co-founder and co-CEO of Savoy Companies, a vertically integrated multifamily real estate platform headquartered in Dallas, Texas. In this episode, recorded on-site in the Bishop Ridge neighborhood of Dallas, Barrett joins Jimmy for a driving tour of the neighborhood before sitting down to discuss Savoy’s origin story, its neighborhood concentration thesis, its unique capital structure, and how it stacks multiple tax incentives on top of the Opportunity Zone program to drive returns for investors.

From Mortgage Broker to OZ Developer

Barrett began his real estate career in 2000 as a commercial mortgage broker, a role he credits with teaching him the full picture of how deals come together. In 2011, he made his first investment — an eight-unit apartment in Oak Lawn — with his wife and mother-in-law as equity partners. They sold it a year and a day later, doubling their money.

In late 2019 or early 2020, Barrett’s attorney flagged that a portfolio of eight properties in North Oak Cliff that Savoy was already pursuing sat inside an Opportunity Zone census tract. Savoy’s CPA was an early adopter — the owner of the firm had started his own OZ fund and became an investor in Savoy’s first OZ deal — which gave Barrett the expertise and initial capital source to move forward. Almost every deal Savoy has done in the five years since has been an Opportunity Zone deal.

Savoy Companies and Vertical Integration

Savoy recently rebranded three separate operating companies under a single umbrella: Savoy Companies. The rebrand reflects the long-hold nature of OZ investing and a commitment to building what Barrett calls “a company that’s durable, that’s long lasting.” The vertical integration eliminates the double promote — the extra layer of fees that exists when a fund allocates capital to a separate developer. It also creates a continuous feedback loop between construction and operations that Barrett says wouldn’t exist if the GC and leasing team were separate organizations.

The Bishop Ridge Neighborhood Thesis

Savoy currently has 751 units online in Bishop Ridge, with approximately 1,100 units in total when predevelopment and under-construction projects are included. Rather than making a single large bet on one project in one census tract, Savoy bought eight distressed buildings and gut-renovated them — taking on the worst parts of the neighborhood first. “By concentrating our investment in one census tract, we’ve been able to control our own destiny. Every new building that we build here makes all of our other assets more valuable.” Savoy has invested approximately $75 million of equity in Bishop Ridge alone, and the flywheel effect has attracted other developers to follow.

The neighborhood was specifically attractive because of surrounding public infrastructure: the Dallas Zoo is receiving a major upgrade, the Southern Gateway Deck Park opens May 9, the Bishop Arts District continues to attract investment, and the downtown convention center is undergoing $4 billion in upgrades just three minutes away. Barrett describes Bishop Ridge as “the hole in the donut” — surrounded by investment, waiting for someone to fill it. He believes the neighborhood concentration model can be replicated in other urban infill areas with the right conditions.

Capital Structure: The Multi-QOF / QOZB Model

Savoy structures its projects using the standard OZ two-tier structure — a Qualified Opportunity Fund investing into a Qualified Opportunity Zone Business, which owns the real estate. What makes Savoy’s approach unusual is that each QOZB accepts investment from multiple unrelated OZ funds simultaneously. Savoy currently has 36 OZ funds invested across its projects, with as many as 19 funds invested into a single QOZB. For investors who don’t want to set up their own captive QOF, Savoy creates an annual fund — currently the 2026 Savoy OZ Fund — which provides access to all QOZBs Savoy is working on in a given year.

Incentive Stacking: OZ + CRA + PFC

On top of the Opportunity Zone structure, Savoy layers two additional incentives. The first is CRA equity — banks have invested in Savoy’s projects alongside OZ funds, motivated by Community Reinvestment Act credit. The second is the Public Facility Corporation structure, which is Texas-specific. In exchange for a 60-year property tax abatement, Savoy agrees to rent 50% of units to income-restricted tenants. The Bowie Apartments — the building where this episode was recorded — would carry approximately $300,000 to $400,000 in annual property taxes without the PFC. With it, those taxes are zero for 60 years.

The combined impact is significant. Deals underwrite to a yield on cost of approximately 6% before the PFC and 7% after. The cash IRR before OZ benefits runs approximately 13-14%. After OZ benefits, returns generally increase by 300 to 400 basis points, bringing the after-tax IRR to approximately 16-17%.

Managing the 2026 Inclusion Event and OZ 2.0

The most common question Barrett is fielding from investors is about the OZ 1.0 deferral date — deferred gains must be recognized on December 31, 2026, with taxes due April 15, 2027. For existing projects, Savoy is executing cash-out refinances to give investors liquidity. For investors deploying into new deals now, Barrett advises them not to invest more than they have in cash set aside to cover the bill.

On OZ 2.0, Barrett identifies permanency as the single biggest development — advisors and wealth managers could previously afford to ignore OZs, and now they cannot. The structural improvement he’s most excited about is the five-year rolling deferral, which replaces the fixed 2026 inclusion date with a rolling deferral tied to each investor’s original investment date. On redesignation, Bishop Ridge’s current census tract remains an OZ through 2028 regardless. Savoy has a monthly standing call with the Texas economic development office to advocate for redesignation under the new map, and Texas has indicated it may publish its nominations as early as July 1.